Wednesday, May 14, 2014

An Agent of HaShem: A Short Story

Minna sat at
her bedroom window and surveyed the tables her friends had so lovingly set. It
was a feast of autumn colors blending beautifully with the foliage in the back
yard. She breathed a sigh of satisfaction. If anyone would have hinted to her
four years earlier that she would now be so content she would have deemed them
crazy dreamers.

It had been
so painful to bid her friends and apartment goodbye four years earlier. Granted that
apartment had not been the castle-in-the-air she had imagined as a child but it
was hers, hers and Gil’s. They had saved the money for it when they were still
single. That nest egg along with their new immigrant mortgage allowed them to
buy a three bedroom home in Gan Erez, the newest suburb of Jerusalem. How
exciting it had been to move into a brand-new neighborhood. Feeling almost like
a pioneer Minna eagerly greeted each new family as they moved into the
building.

“Chaim and
Sima are Americans, too,” she excitedly reported to Gil as they sat at their
Shabbat table their first Shabbat in their home. “She wants to organize a
weekly class on the laws of proper speech.”

“In Hebrew
or English? Gil asked.

“Easy
Hebrew,” Minna answered confidently. “And Sharona, she lives right below us, is
more than happy to help me if I don’t understand. And Malka, she’s originally
from France, wants to sign her daughter up for piano lessons with me. And
Rivka, above us, wants to start a walking group. She says just going up and
down these hills is as good as aerobics and we can visit and shop while we
walk.”

Gil smiled
lovingly at his bride. “You’re happy we bought here?”

“Oh yes! And
you?”

“Uh-huh,”
Gil agreed. “I like the men at the minyan. Chaim and I are going to
learn together. It’s an easy ride to work. And when I feel the city closing in
around me I can go out on our porch and enjoy the view.”

Minna and
Gil loved their porch. Many meals were eaten at the patio table they had
brought with them on their lift. When the weather was right they took their
Shabbat rests in the lounge chairs out there. For Sukkot they were able to invite
all the neighbors to their large Sukkah for a Yom Tov Kiddush which was really
a luncheon.

Everything
was idyllic the first few years. If Minna was worried that she had not become
pregnant no one knew. She happily gave music lessons, headed the neighborhood chesed
committee, went to Torah classes, and walked daily with Rivka and some of the
others. It was on a cloudy day after Pesach that Rivka gave her some bad news.

“We’re
moving,” she told Minna apologetically.

“Why?!?”

Rivka
sighed. “My mother’s not doing well. We’re going back to the moshav where I
grew up.”

“Bbbut..”

“I’ll miss
you,” Rivka said sincerely.

“I’ll miss
you!” Minna agreed emphatically. “But how will you manage on the moshav?”

Rivka smiled
at her friend’s concern. “My husband has a job lined up and I’ll teach gym at
the school. The kids will love all the
fresh air. It will be good.”

Minna
nodded.

“Don’t
worry. We’ll sell the apartment to someone nice.”

Naama and
Baruch Yankel bought it. Minna thought their names were a good omen. Naama meant
pleasant and Baruch blessed. So, she decided, they would be a pleasant
blessing. Only they weren’t…

They seemed
nice enough in the beginning. They were friendly and smiling when they knocked
on the door to borrow things. And they always nodded understandingly when Minna
ran into them in the elevator and reminded them to return the borrowed item.
They were never annoyed when she would knock on their door and demand the return
of the iron or vacuum cleaner or some other important item. She didn’t bother
to ask for the onions or the eggs or the milk.

“Oh, thank
you for coming to get it!” Naama would exclaim. “You saved me a trip, but then
with four little boys it is so hard to get out. You probably have a lot more
free time.”

After
several such encounters Minna stopped opening the door when Naama knocked.
Still, when they made their annual Sukkot Kiddush Gil made sure to invite
Baruch and his family. Everyone either
brought something or helped Minna set up, everyone except Naama.

“Oh,” she
commented seeing everyone arrive with platters and bowls. “I didn’t know I was
supposed to bring anything.”

“I will,”
Naama declared. “I wouldn’t have had time to make anything anyway. You have no
idea how hard it is to chase after four little boys all day long. And now that
I’m expecting, well… Why’d you nudge me?” she demanded of Sima.

Minna
continued smiling and ignored the exchange. What she had a hard time ignoring, though, was
the behavior of the four little Yankel boys. No wonder Naama had no time for
returning borrowed items. They ran all over the porch, pushed into people, put
their grubby hands into the egg salad and then smeared some on the lawn
furniture.

“Here,
Naama,” Minna offered her neighbor a package of baby wipes she always kept on
hand for her students’ fingers. “Can you wipe your boys’ hands please so they
don’t stain the upholstery?”

“I guess you
care more about your furniture than people’s feelings,” Naama retorted angrily.
“It’s a good thing you don’t have any children.” She gathered hers and left.

Malka was
standing right next to Minna as the barb was shot and she hugged her friend.
The next day she approached Naama to try and make peace but was not successful.

“I don’t
want to speak badly about her,” she said to Minna later. “But I think
you should know that Naama doesn’t mean to be hurtful. She’s just very
insensitive and has no clue that anything she said was mean.”

“Thank you
for trying,” Minna told Malka. What she didn’t tell her was that she was four
weeks pregnant. That was a precious secret she was sharing only with Gil.

Meanwhile,
as insensitive as Naama was, she began to sense disapproval from the neighbors
of the way she had spoken at the Kiddush. Instead of regretting her words she
convinced herself she was justified. Minna had embarrassed her in public and
therefore she could respond as she wished. Her irritation grew with each
passing day and she began telling the others how Minna refused to open her door
to her. She complained that the piano students’ noise kept her from resting.
She let her boys bounce balls from their porch onto Minna’s and Gil’s at all
hours and then demanded that they should let the boys in to get them.

Minna tried
her best to ignore the abuse until the day Naama dumped her dirty water from
washing her floors over the edge of the porch onto Minna’s clean laundry
hanging in the sun. It had been the only day of sun that week and Minna stared
at her now filthy wash with disbelief. Counting to ten over and over again she
took the elevator to the apartment above hers and knocked loudly on the door.
The reception she received was hardly pleasant.

“What are
you doing here?”Naama demanded.

Swallowing
bravely Minna answered. ‘’I think we should go talk to the Rav.”

“Okay,”
Naama smiled sweetly. “My Rav is in Meron.”

“No,” Minna
shook her head. “The Rav of Gan Erez.”

“He’s not my
Rav,” Naama slammed the door.

That evening
Minna ranted and raved to an equally angry Gil. “If it’s a neighborhood problem
we need to speak to the neighborhood Rav, not her private Rav.”

“I don’t
believe she has a Rav in Meron,” Gil said simply. “I think she just made that
up to put you off. I don’t want to go into all the dirt but Baruch is not so
normal, either. We’re not going to be able to change them. I’ve been thinking
that maybe we should move.”

“Move?”

Gil nodded.
“We could get a great price on this apartment and move out of the city into a
little village with a house and a yard.”

“What about
your job?”

“I could
work from home and come into the city once every week or two.”

“And Chaim?”

Gil sighed.
“That would be a drawback, but I’m sure I could find a good learning partner
where we move.”

“What about
me?”

“There will
be music students wherever we go.”

“But Sima
and Malka and Sharona and the others?”

“Minna,
you’re such a nice person you won’t have trouble making new friends.”

“But I don’t
want new friends. I like the ones I have.”” Minna began to cry.

“Never
mind,” Gil didn’t want to upset his pregnant wife. “It was just an idea.”

The torture
continued, though. Trash was thrown daily from the Yankel’s porch onto theirs.
Naama closed the door of the elevator in Minna’s face every time she got the
chance. The little boys grew tired of balls and began throwing wooden blocks
over the balcony. Minna began to think seriously about her husband’s
suggestion.

And then
there was the day that Minna left the building to do some errands and saw Naama
and her brood riding their bicycles down the sidewalk, in the same direction she
was going. Her first instinct was to head right back to the elevator but it was
the last day to pay the water bill and she had a piano student coming in an hour.
As she hesitated the oldest Yankel boy
rode his bike straight into Minna’s legs. Naama continued on her way, oblivious
of her son’s escapade, and didn’t see Minna crumble to the ground.It was someone from across the street that
came to her rescue and called an ambulance. Minna spent five days in the
hospital.It was not a simple
miscarriage. She was told she would probably not be able to have another
pregnancy.

No one
except Gil knew she was pregnant so no one knew she had lost the baby. Her
friends understood that she had a concussion and was being kept for
observation. Despite their visits and
concern Minna came to the bitter conclusion that Gil’s idea was indeed a good
one. With a heavy heart she agreed to move. And with an equally heavy heart she
said goodbye to her friends and apartment in Gan Erez.

The new
village was lovely, though. She loved the tree-lined paths, the scented
flowers, the slow pace of life, and she made new friends. After about a year
she felt close enough to Miriam to confide about her miscarriage. Her friend
was more than sympathetic. She spoke to her brother who was a fertility
specialist. He had a waiting list a yearlong but Miriam was able to shorten it
to six months. The treatments had not been easy. However Minna was willing to
do whatever he said. Now she surveyed her garden and its set tables with tears
of thankfulness. Gil quietly came into their room and stood beside her.

“The mohel
will be here soon.”

“He’s
ready,” Minna cuddled the baby in her lap.

“And you?”

“Me too,” Minna
nodded. “Look the guests are arriving.”

Through the
window they watched neighbors and some of Gil’s co-workers file in. Suddenly
Gil tensed.

“What’s she
doing here?” He pointed at Naama who had entered the garden with Malka.

Naama’s eyes
glanced to where her husband pointed. She smiled. “I invited her.”

“YOU INVITED
HER! After everything she did to you! If it wasn’t for her we wouldn’t have
left Gan Erez.”

“If we
hadn’t left Gan Erez I wouldn’t have met Miriam and if I hadn’t met Miriam her
brother wouldn’t have helped us and if he wouldn’t have helped us who knows if
we would have our son. Naama was simply an agent of HaShem. I wanted to thank
Him so I invited His messenger.”

Aim of Blog

Emunah, faith in God, does not mean believing only good things will happen; it means believing that whatever God does is for the best. I wrote these words at a time when drive-by shootings and suicide bombers had become almost weekly, if not daily, tragedies. Now, more than ten years later, the words are no less true. Whatever HaShem does is for the best. It is my hope to post articles, advice, and homey stories everyweekwhich will reinforce this fact. And now, a special thanks to:

Batya Medad, my neighbor and experienced blogger. Without her I would never have been able to set up

About Me

Born in Wichita, Kansas, I became a Baalat Teshuva, newly religious, in Phoenix, Arizona while attending ASU. After twelve years of marriage my husband and I made Aliyah with five children and settled in Shilo in the heart of Israel. Two more children joined the family as have daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, and grandchildren, Baruch HaShem. My favorite past times are learning, sewing, hiking, reading, cooking, baking, enjoying my family and friends, and, of course, writing. My first novel, Sondra’s Search, was published in 2007 and I am working on the sequel.